Apparatus for hot riveting.



G. A. E. JONES.

APPARATUS FOR HOT RIVETING.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 13. I9I8.

1,297,570. Patented Mar. 18,1919.

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UNITED snares ra @FFTGE.

GEORGE A. E. JONES, 0F BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS.

APPARATUS roe nor mvarme'.

Specification of Letters Patent.

PatentedlWar. 18, 1919.

Application filed March 13, 1918. Serial No. 222,172.

'heating rivets and is especially applicable for riveting in structural work or in ship building in which the rivets have to be applied after the structural parts are in place, as distinguished from the practice which is involved in riveting parts which may be conveyed or presented to a riveting machine for the riveting operation.

The invention consists mainly in a novel construction of suitable electrodes which are freely movable and are manipulated by the operator in being presented to the rivets after said rivets have been inserted in the rivet holes in the parts to be united.

By the use of such electrodes a rivet may be quickly heated and the electrode may then be removed so that the rivet may be headed by a hammer or any of the freely movable riveting appliances that are c0m monly used in connection with structural work.

. By such appliances the heating of the rivets may be more uniformly effected and a better quality of work produced than in the usual practice in structural work in which the rivets are heated extraneously in a furnace and are introduced hot into the rivet holes.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view illustrating instrumentalit'ies applied for heating a rivet, while in place in the rivet hole, for hot riveting in accordance with this invention;

' Fig. 2, a side elevation partly in section of one of the electrodes, employed in connection with a holder-on or anvil which may be used as an abutment for the head of the rivet, while the other end or point of the the rivet isbeing upset or headed; and

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of an electrode by which the current may be introduced into the rivet to be heated thereby. 7

Referring to Fig. 1 the rivet to be heated,

shown at 2, is inserted while cold through the coinciding holes in the plates or parts 3,

4, which are to be united by heading or up setting the end portion of the rivet which projects beyond the surface of the plate 4.

In order to heat the cold rivet .when thus in place in the rivet hole to a forging heat, as shown in this instance, an electric current is passed through the said rivet' by means of electrodes 5, 6, held in contact with the point and head of the rivet respectively, as shown in Fig. 1. I i

These electrodes 5, 6, receive the current from a suitable transformer 10 having one terminal of its secondary coil connected by a flexible conductor or wire 15 with the electrode 5 and the other terminal connected by a flexible conductor or wire 16, with the electrode 6. i

The transformer 10 may be of any suitable or usual construction preferably having provision for adjusting the output of current and bein adapted to have its primary coils connecte with any suitable source of electric current, usually of relatively high voltage, such as is commonly available where structural work is going on, said transformer delivering into the secondary circuit and electrodes, a current of large quantity but relatively low voltage, which is safe to handle and effective for heating.

.The electrodes 5 and 6 a're composed of material of high conductivity, preferably copper, of a sectional area substantially larger than that of the rivet to be heated, and the connecting wires 15 and 16 are'also 0 large conductivity relative to that of the rivet 2 through which the current passes from one electrode to the other when the said electrodes are in contact with said rivet as shown in Fig. 1.

The electrode proper is inclosed in a covering of insulating material? except at the end which is to make contactwith the part to be heated. The insulating covering is inclosed in a shield 8 of durablematerial such as iron, the said electrode, insulating material, and inclosing shield being made up and put together as, shown so as to make a sub- 32, 33, and 34 in Fig. 3, so that by screwing or fastening together the two parts of the shield 8, the entire components of the electrode are united and constitute a single unitary implement. p

The inclosing 'shield' is entirely disconnected from the electric circuit, being insulated therefrom by the insulating covering 7 for the electrode5, and it is immaterial from an electrical standpoint whether it is composed of conducting material or not, its purpose being to protect the electrode proper and its insulating covering from damage in the rough-handling to which a tool of this character is natui'ally subjected.

The said tool containing the electrode 5 i shown as provided with'a handle 9, see F ig.

1, to facilitate manipulation by the operator, who merely takes it in hand and presses the exposed end -of the electrode against the rivet as shown in Fig. 1 when the rivet is to be heated. v

The electrode 6 is'shown as mounted upon 'a frame 20 p-ivotally connected at 21 with the holder-on or-anvil 22 which is shown as a heavy rod or bar of iron or steel adapted to be manipulated by the operator.

In the heating operation the electrode'6 is maintained in line with the bar 22 by a latch or fastening device 23, but as soon as the heating is completed theoperator withdraws the electrode 6 from the head of the rivet and thendisengages the latch 23, which permits the electrode to drop to the position shown in dotted lines Fig. 2, after which the operator places the end of the bar 22 against the head of the rivet so that said bar serves to hold the rivet and to act as an anvil or abutment while the other end of the rivet is bleling upset by the hammer or riveting mac me.

. lows holes as the preliminary step in the hot riveting operation.

When the rivet is to be headed one operator presses the electrode 6 against the head thereof, so as to keep the rivet fully inserted in the hole and so as to make a good electric contact with the head of the rivet.

The operator at the other side then places the electrode 5 against the point or projecting end of the rivet and the current then flows from one electrode to the other through the rivet, which quickly becomes heated thereby to proper forging heat.

The resistance being the greatest at the The operation in a ob of riveting is as folpoint of contact between the electrode 5 and.

the end of the rivetjthe heating effect will be most prompt and intense at the end of the rivet, which is desirable, and in a very short time the projecting portion of the rivet will be broiight to forging heat.

The'operartor then withdraws the electrode 5 while the operator at the other side withdraws and releases the electrode 6 and then presses the holder-on or anvil 22 against the head of the rivet, so that it affords adequate support for the same during the heading op eration, which is then performed in any suitable or usualmanner. a

In some kinds of work as where' the parts being riveted are large plates or substantially continuous plating, it may be necessary to pass the wire 16 through one of the rivet holes while the rivets in that neighborhood are being operated upon- It is not essential however that the entire length of rivet should be included in the circuit although that is generally the mos-t effective. In cases where it is notpractical to apply an electrode to the-head of the rivet, the current may be passed into the rivet from the electrode 5 as shown in Fig. 1, and the circuit may be completed through one or the other of the plates 3, 4, by placing the other electrode 6 in contact therewith, or by otherwise making an adequate electric connection to said plate from the other. terminal of the transformer coil than the one connected with the electrode 5.

By introducing the rivets cold, it will be recognized that a number of rivets may all be inserted in their respective holes before any are headed and it also is possible to use a substantially closer fit of the rivet in the rivet hole than is practicable when the rivets are introduced into the holes while at forging heat and consequently considerably expanded. In the usual practice it is not practicable to introduce a second rivet until the previous one has been headed, while in th present method substantially all, or any desired number of the rivets'pertaining to a given seam or line of rivets may beinserted before any are headed, thus facilitating the correct alinement of the holes in the parts to be united before any of the rivets are headed.

VVhilethe electrodes at the two sides of the work cooperate in the heating operation they are mechanically entirely disconnected from one another and each s manipulated independently by a workman and it may be desirable to employ two of the instruments such as shown in Fig. 2, and/two operators therefor working in conjunction with an operator having one of the instruments such as is shown in Fig. 3 and another operator manipulating the hammer or heading device. Y

' Thus one of the instruments shown in Fig.

- 2 might be employed in connection with the chanically free electrodes,

companion electrode, such as shown in Fig. 3 for heating a rivet, while the other of the said instruments shown in Fig. 2 would be used as the holder-on in cooperation with the operator performing the heading operation on the rivet previously heated.

In this manner the work could be very rapidly performed by the use of the methe operation being more expeditious than where the electrodes constitute part of an organized ma chine comprising the heating and heading instrumentalities, which machines as heretofore devised are not adapted ,for use in structural work to apply the rivets after the structural components have been placed in their final position.

WVhat I claim is 1. -A freely movable implement for heating rivets comprising an electrode having a contact surface to be placed in contact with the exposed end of the rivet to be heated, and an inclosing cov'eringof insulating the hand and presented by the operatorto the rivet to be heated substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. The combination with a holder-on bar or anvil for supporting a rivet while being headed with an electrode movably connected with said bar and flexibly connected with a source of electric current, said holder-on bar and electrode beingadapted to be manipulated by the operator whereby either the bar or the electrode may be held in direct contact with the rivet head substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

. GEORGE A. E. JONES. 

